Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-09-22
CAMPING OUT.
Some of the Delights and Benefits De-
rived from Such a Trip.

SOIuc Va int Dch6hto oho AScnChio Dc-
rived from Such Trip.
Camping out" is, for the most part,
becoming merely name for moving out of
ones permanent habitation and dwelling
for a few weeks in well-built lodge,
smaller, perhaps, than ones home, but as
comfortable and almost as convenient with
tables, chairs and crockery, carpets and
curtains, beds with sheets and blankets on
real bedsteads, stove and its full outfit Of
cooking utensils, wherefrom meals are
served in the regular ways of civilization.
And 80, living in nearly the same fashion
OF his ordinary life, except that he wears
flannel shirt and a SLOUGH hat, and perhaps
fishes a little, and loafs more than is his
ordinary custom, our camper imagines
that he Is getting quite close to the print
tive ways of hunters and trappers; that he
is living their life with nothing lacking
but the rough edges which he has inge-
niously smoothed away. But he is mis-
taken. In Kidding himself of some OF its
discomforts, he has lost great deal of the
best of real camp life; the spice of small
adventure, and the woodsy flavor
that its half-hardships and make
shift appliances give it. If one
SlCGIo II l4ttiC kOA0 uiiutE OuG bldllhCl
on his bed Of evergreen twigs, though he
does not take cold, he realizes in some de-
gree the discomfort of Boone's bivouac
when he cuddled beside his hounds to keep
from freezing-and feels slightly heroic
His slumbers are seasoned with dreams of
the wild woods, as the balsamic perfume of
his couch steals into his nostrils; his COM
panion's snores invade his drowsy senses as
the growl of bears, and the thunderous
whir of grouse bursting out of untrodden
thicllets. When he awakes in the gray of
early morning he finds that the few hours
of sleep have wrought miracle Of rest,
and he finds himself nearer to nature when
he washes his face in the brook, than when
he rinses off his sleepiness in bowl or basin.
The water of the spring is colder and has a
finer flavor when he drinks it from birch
bark cup of his own making. Tea made
in a frying-pan has an aroma never known
TO such poor mortals as brew their tea in
teapot, and no mill ever ground such cof-
fee as that which is tied up in rag and
pounded with a stone or hatchet-head. A
sharpened stick for a fork gives zest to
the bit of pork "frizzled" on as rude spit
and plattered on clean chip or bit of
bark, and no fish was ever more toothsome
than when broiled on gridiron improvised
OF green wands, or roasted Indian fashion,
In cleft stick.
What can make amends for the loss of
the campfire, with innumerable pictures
glowing and shifting in its heart and con-
juring strange shapes out Of the gloom,
and suggesting unseen mysteries that the
circle of darkness holds behind its rim?
Hntu tho walls Of TO ha
thawed out by a black stove, so that tales
OF hunters and fishers craft and ad-
venture shall flow till the measure of mans
belief is overrun? How is the congenial
spark Of true companionship to be kindled
when the people brood around stove and
light their pipes with matches, and not
with Goals snatched out of the camp-fire's
edge, or with twigs that burn briefly with
battling flame?
But it viii not be long before it will be
impossible to get taste of real camping
without taking long and expensive jour
neys, for every available rod of lake shore
and river bank is being taken up and
made populous with so-called camps, and
the comfortable freedom and seclusion of a
real camp are made impossible there. One
desiring that might better pitch his tent
IN the back woodlot OF farm that IN any
such popular resort. This misnamed
camping out has become fashion which
seems likely to last till the shores are as
thronged as the towns, and the woods are
spoiled for the real campers, whom it is
possible to imagine seeking in the summers
of the future seclusion in the cities that
the forests and streams no longer can give
them. Let those who can study the de-
Gghtful and practical pages of Wood
craft" and go while they may practice its
lessons and get taste of real camp life
Yet, let it be understood that make-be-
ieve camping is better than no camping.
1t cannot but bring people into more init
mate relations with nature than they
would be if they stayed at home, and so to
better acquaintance with and greater in
terest in the mother who deals so impair
tally with all her children.-Forest and
Stream.